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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Things are ready to bust out

It went from winter to spring like a switch had been
flipped.Good thing because I had used
up the last of the firewood when the cold finally quit.The last several days have been not only pleasant but
downright superb.The catfish and
bluegill are back and are actively feeding. The frogs are making some noise but are far from full chorus.
I’m still waiting on some of the hostas to poke through the soil.Probably shouldn’t be concerned but last
year’s heat was really hard on plants.It probably wasn’t the best year to do landscaping and buy all those
plants as many of them suffered badly in the heat.

Going from a winter setup back to normal is a lot of work (yeh I consider winter abnormal).Last week I dismantled and cleaned the wood stove,
cleaned the flue pipe, covered the top so no more bluebirds can get in, and
spread the wood ashes on the pasture.The chains were taken off the garden tractor tires.Before the mower could be attached the blades
had to be put back on and before that could be done they had to be sharpened. I chose not to pay the shop to sharpen them so I bought a bench grinder – it
will pay for itself quickly enough and has a million uses.That’s how it’s been going – every job I start first requires doing
another task, then another task, etc, etc.

The compost bin was turned over by inverting the modules and
shoveling the compost into the newly made bin, as described in this post.
Because of the extended cold weather
none of the compost was finished.After
turning the pile over the oldest compost is now on top and with the warmer
weather it is now a hot pile, so some of it should finish in a few weeks.This year I’ll just put the finished compost into the
squash, potato and tomato/pepper beds since the rest of the beds have been
planted already.I
took the plastic greenhouse off the greens bed last week.As if overnight it now looks like a fully planted bed
with spinach, lettuce and the first set of brassicas in there.The second set of brassicas is in the bed behind it.All
of them are about the same size even though the last set was seeded almost two
weeks later.

The
lettuce that was seeded in the earthbox in the mobile greenhouse sometime in
February finally began growing.A few
weeks ago it looked like the hard freezes had just about done it in.At this rate I’ll start picking some in a few days.

3 comments:

Sounds like you have had a busy time recently. Being a resourceful person, no doubt you made those wire cages to fit over the raised beds, yourself? I could do with some of those, but my carpentry skills are very poor - and I'm too lazy to try making some - but I sure wish I did have some like that. They would save me a lot of trouble!

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About this Blog

I moved to this place in SW Indiana in 2008. The property is six acres of woods, pasture, yard and pond. Usable garden space with full sun is limited by surrounding trees to 250 square feet of raised beds, more the size of an urban garden. I use intensive techniques: rotation of plant families, nutrient cycling, cages and trellises, row cover and cold frames to get the most out of the space.

About Me

A native Hoosier, I worked in the construction trades and later in life got a chemistry degree and worked in a research lab until retirement. I raise vegetables because they taste better and it saves money. What other hobby pays for itself? I'm a cheapskate - I won't buy new seeds until the old ones aren't any good. I'm also a bit of a lazy gardener - if I can buy the seedlings I want then why start the seeds, or if I can engineer a way to make it less work I'll do so. I also drink too much beer. But I never (well almost never) work in the garden and drink beer.